The 2017 – 2018 havest season of coffee cherries has been due as the bustling activities of preparing and harvesting can be seen everywhere in Dak Nong province. As assesed, this year, the productivity of coffee is higher compared to last year and the selling price also stands at a satisfactory level so the majority of farmers feel delighted.

During these last days of October, in areas where coffee trees are grown on the sloping land of some districts and town (Dak R'lap, Gia Nghia, Dak Song, Tuy Duc), farmers have begun harvesting coffee on the large scale. However, for the districts like Dak Mil, Cu Jut, Krong No, Dak Glong, people have merely havested on the trees that have cherries turning ripen early.

For households that grow coffee, the preparations for the harvest season were carried out quite promptly. Most families have done with the steps of clearing weeds, raking fallen leaves from the tree stumps, purchasing canvas (used for spreading around the trunk of coffee tree to catch cherries falling down as people remove them from the tree), hiring labour to help with harvesting the cherries. This year, a majority of families growing coffee told that they had a relatively high productivity and the are optimistic about the higher price of coffee in relation to the previous years.

Nguyen Thi Ha, a woman living in Hamlet 5, Quang Tin commune, Dak R'lap district says that farmers are generally delighted because they could sell coffee cherries at a comparatively good price though it is just the beginning of the harvest season; and thanks to not being affected by drought, the productivity of the coffee is also higher this year in comparison with the previous year. Ha's family owns 1 hectare of coffee-cultivated land and they are expecting to reap over 10 tonnes of coffee cherry, which is about 1 tonne higher than last year. Her family has now harvested on a number of trees whose cherries get ripen early and sold some of them at the price of VND8,000 per kilo, which is VND1,000 higher than it was at the same time of last year.

As for Mr Nguyen Thanh Lam in Hamlet 6, Nhan Co commune, Dak R'lap district, his family also grows coffee in an area of nearly 1.5 hectare. Up to now, they have just selected and harvested the tree that has the most number of ripen cherries. According to Mr Lam, the coffee cherries have yet to be in ripen riot, so they haven't picked all of cherries from their trees all at once yet. He explains that harvesting coffee all at once would save his family a lot of labour and time but the number of green beans would be very large, which would affect the quality of the inside beans when they get dried, and farmers are not to be able to sell their coffee at a good price anymore. According to Mr. Lam, it would take a half month more before the time is due for his family to harvest all of the coffee cherries.

According to Mr Vu Thanh Doan, Chairman of the fassociation of farmers in Nhan Co commune, at this time, farmers all over the country are beginning the coffee harvest season and all seem so excited by the fact that the productivity is 20% to 30% higher over previous year, of which, the average output of dried coffee beans is 3 tonnes per ha.

The local farmers revealed that, in the previous years, the price of coffee used to stand at very low level at the beginning of harvest season and then gradually get higher towards the admid and the end of the season. However, this year, at the very beginning of the harvest period, the price has been already comparatively high. If the price remained its progress like previous years, there is a good chance that the farmers would have a successful year. Though the harvesting season has yet to end, farmers growing coffee are quite certain that the productivity of this year is higher than last year by 10% to 20%, owing to favorable weather. At the current selling price, which fluctuats around VND42 million per tonne of dried coffee beans, after deducting all kinds of expenses, farmers could still make a profit from VND 35 million to VND45 million per hectare.

Farmers in Dak Lao commune, Dak Mil district begin to pick the coffee trees that have cherries in ripen riot.

Greater importance attached to harvesting method

Another good news is that during this harvestseason, a majority of farmers are attaching more importance to raising the quality of their products right at the harvest stage. People used to think that it's way better to have green fruits at home than to have ripen ones outside the house. Such mindset, however, doesn't seem that popular now.

According to Mr Tran Van Thu, who lives in the Hamlet 8A, commune Dak Lao, Dak Mil district, that way of thinking was due to people's fear that the cherries might be stolen or that it would cost them more time and labour if the cherries are not picked all at once. He admited picking the cherries all at once in fact saves people a lot of labour; However, he said, it turnes out the disavantage outnumberes advantage because as a result of that way of picking the cherries, the final product of coffee beans would not be good and uniform in term of quality, not to mention the harm caused for the trees themselves. He said, for the previous two years, he spent more time visiting and examining the field and harvested first on the trees that turned ripen earlier or picked the cherries that turned ripen earlier of other trees. After that, he kept waiting and it was not untill about 90% of the cherries on the trees turned ripen when he eventually harvested the tree all at once.

According to the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, in order to reduce the loss during and after harvest time, the Department has annually issued doccument to give instruction to local farmers on the propper way of harvesting, processing and preserving coffee in compliance with the standard process. In a varieties of forms, the levels of authority has also incorporated giving instruction into most of the province's program, project, or even held workshops to give instruction and popularize among the people the techniques from harvesting to the drying and preserving their products.

Though the specific figures have yet to be worked out up to now, the results from surveys and investigations conducted in localities have reflected the better productivity compared to last year, greater importance attached to the process of harvesting and preserving by local people, along with a satisfactory level of price, which could be considered bullish signs of a successful year for coffee growers.